Tottenham flop Paulinho is officially a La Liga record-breaker with Barcelona

Latest Spurs news includes a look at what Paulinho has been doing this season

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Shane IrelandSport Central Content Editor

18:39, 18 FEB 2018

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Tottenham flop Paulinho is officially a Barcelona record-breaker.

The midfielder, 29, arrived at the Nou Camp from Chinese Super League side Guangzhou Evergrande in the summer.

It was one of the most surprising moves of the transfer window, but six months into his Barcelona career he has been busy proving people wrong.

There was talk of the disastrous spell he had in the Premier League with Tottenham.

Villa's Leandro Bacuna and Tottenham's Paulinho battle for possession.

He was seen as not being up to scratch for a club of Barca's calibre, and merely a placeholder until they secured the signing of Philippe Coutinho, which they eventually did in January, reports the Mirror.

But he's ultimately proved much more than that.

Paulinho has weighed in with eight goals from his 23 La Liga appearances for his new club, but it is something else that has happened in those 23 appearances which now makes him a La Liga record breaker.

Because Barca haven't lost in any of them, and that is that most amount of La Liga matches anyone has ever played in without losing one.

He brought up the record in Saturday's 2-0 win at Eibar, when goals from Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba secured a comfortable victory.

Paulinho is likely to keep his place when Barca go to Chelsea in the Champions League on Tuesday, with Coutinho cup-tied.

Paulinho's Barcelona career so far

Games: 23

Wins: 18

Draws: 5

Losses: 0

Goals: 8

More Spurs news

Barcelona are ready to sell Andre Gomes this summer - and it could spark a bidding war between Premier League rivals Tottenham and West Ham.

Reports in Spain indicate that Barca could be willing to sell their Portuguese international, having only signed him from La Liga rivals Valencia for nearly £35m in the summer of 2016.

Starts in the league, amid competition from the likes of Ivan Rakitic, Sergio Busquets and Andres Iniesta, have been hard to come by for Gomes, who has been the subject of interest from England in the past.

Manchester United have previously been linked, while Spurs and the Hammers are reported to have made enquiries in the last 12 months.

Gomes, 24, was expected to shine at the Camp Nou but hasn’t been able to make a significant mark in his 18 months in Catalunia.

Lemela tracked

Tottenham ace Erik Lamela is on the radar of Inter Milan.

The 25-year-old winger was brought to Europe from River Plate in 2011 by Inter director of football Walter Sabatini, who was then working for Roma.

And according to Calciomercato, Sabatini is considering signing Lamela again.

Lamela was a big hit in Italy, providing 15 goals and five assists in 33 Serie A appearances during the 2012-13 campaign, before moving to London in a deal that made him Tottenham’s record signing at the time.

Lamela is back in the Spurs team after a lengthy injury and played the majority of the game in the 2-2 draw at Juventus on Tuesday night.

Inter are currently on course to qualify for the Champions League after being absent from the competition since 2012.

A move for Lamela would likely be dependant on Inter finishing in the top four in Serie A — they are currently third — and booking their place in Europe’s No 1 club competition next season.

Big money

The average Premier League player earned more than £50,000 a week, according to the latest edition of sporting intelligence’s annual Global Sports Salaries Survey.

And Manchester United’s first-team players are the best paid in the Premier League - pocketing an average of £100,792 a week

The average Manchester City player also earns more than £5 million a year, averaging at £100,691 a week.

Even the more lowly clubs pay big bucks - rock bottom West Brom pay an average of nearly £43,000 a week.

It makes the division the highest paid football league in the world.

However, three clubs from outside of England do pay their first team players more than those of City and United.

Barcelona’s first-team players earn an average of £126,875 a week - the most of at any football club in the world.

PSG pay their players an average of £124,468 a week and Real Madrid pay £119,708.

The biggest sporting wage bills are to be found outside of football.

Basketball side Oklahoma City Thunder have the biggest wage bill of all the sport clubs analysed in the study.

The Thunder have an annual wage bill of £7,150,388, which works out at £137,507 per player.

Cleveland Cavaliers (also basketball) pay their stars an average of £133,071 a week, while Golden State Warriors (also basketball) pay £132,260 a week.